Behind the scenes with San Francisco’s mayoral candidates

Over the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down for one-on-one interviews with all of the men and women running for mayor of San Francisco. It’s a remarkable race between 16 candidates.

They include the interim mayor (Ed Lee), two city supervisors (John Avalos and David Chiu), three former city supervisors (Michela Alioto-Pier, Bevan Dufty, and Tony Hall) and a state senator (Leland Yee).

Having such a diverse cast of characters made for a lot of interesting conversations.

While hearing policy points and platforms is important in making an informed vote, I was equally interested to hear how these candidates sounded not just as politicians, but as people. As such, I started every conversation by asking them to tell me something about where they lived in San Francisco. That proved to be an interesting icebreaker, and a good spot to launch into discussions of the issues facing the city. We’ve got candidates from all over – the Marina (Alioto-Pier), Chinatown (Pang), Polk Gulch (Chiu), the Excelsior (Avalos), Glen Park (Lee), the Castro (Baum), the Richmond (Rees), the Sunset (Adachi, Ting, and Yee), and one, ironically, living in public assistance housing in Pacific Heights (Currier).

I also was curious to see what kind of connection the candidates would make with me. Would they come across as if they were in a conversation? Or would they talk at me? Did it seem like they had their own agenda to push forward, or would they meet me where I was coming from?

Several of the candidates are seasoned politicians who clearly have plenty of practice performing before a microphone. I frequently found, however, that too much polish, and even encyclopedic knowledge of topics, can come across kind of wonky. Other candidates evidently had very little on-air experience, and in the course of conversing with so many people running for mayor, I found their candidness, for the most part, refreshing.

Finally, would they sound like somebody capable of leading the city? Charisma can come across through conversation, and I think you’ll hear how these candidates would relate with City Hall and the people of San Francisco.

In talking with so many people about the most important issues in San Francisco, I came to an encouraging conclusion. Having 16 people running for mayor can be overwhelming – but having so many qualified candidates is a real victory for the city, and it’s not something that has happened frequently enough. Another sign of a healthy democracy is a strong voter turnout – something that has also been lacking in San Francisco.

Election day is next Tuesday, November 8. The candidates have stated their cases. Now it’s time for the city’s voters to do the same.

You can hear short and long versions of Ben Trefny’s conversations with all of San Francisco’s mayoral candidates by clicking here.